9 Apr 2012

Santa Catarina (Brazil)

Oh, it's going to be a long post! Let me starting showing the current state flag:

The basic design isn't bad, but something in this coat of arms, like the star wearing a Phrygian cap, or the red lace, makes me a bit disgusted about the flag. This current flag is based in a older, and cooler, flag:

It's a cool flag, but with a old-school style. There's seventeen stripes (the number of juridical districts when the flag was created) and twenty-four stars (the number of municipalities in that moment). There's no symbolic reason to adopt that numbers, and a update would be impossible: currently, the state counts 293 municipalities and a minimum of 182 juridical districts. I'm sorry, but no way.

There's another flag that was used in that territory, the flag of the República Juliana (Juliana Republic?), a short-lived republic with inspiration in Farroupilha Republic (in their current neighbor state Rio Grande do Sul). The flag is simple, beutiful and, supposedly, original.

But, unlike the Farroupilha Republic, that's almost more popular in Rio Grande do Sul than the national flag, I never knew about a Juliana flag in Santa Catarina, and 95% of state people probably never listened about its existence.

As I can't see the Juliana flag as official state flag in near future, I mixed the two flags to create my proposal. It's this:

I remained with the Juliana colors: green, yellow and white; I can't see any problem wth it. But I didn't drop the green diamond, said to represent St. Catherine (the patron saint of state). The central star is there, representing the state star in flag. The Southern Cross was a way of putting the red in flag, and remembers this is the second Brazilian state nearest to South Pole.

1. Neither I know about a good use of Phrygian cap.2. Sure the Juliana Republic flag is a great and meaningful symbol. Its disuse is a pity.3. Imagine the complex Mathematical progressions I would need to discover a good layout to 293 stars! And it'd spend a lot of material!4. Some days after the post, I knew about this semi-official state flag: it's the Contestado flag, used in another insurgency ocurred in the state. A brilliant flag, but I don't think it deserves to be the official state flag.